Nairobi

April 15^th

We wake up have a shake and then head out to the Nairobi shuttle, which we think for some reason is going to be much fancier than the ones we had been taking...but we were not all that correct, in fact they had stuck us all the way in the back so the ride was extra bumpy and bouncy...it reminded me of the times in grade school when we thought it was fun to sit in the back and get bounced around. It’s all well and good when it is a half an hour trip, but when it is a 6 hour trip it becomes a little tiresome, but at least we had lots of room...

During the visa check in when we got to Nairobi, Kenya we met a man named Bill who helps the local people how to use the resources they have to create better lives for themselves and become fully sustained without outside funding. The organization he works for is a Christian organization that also works with the people who donate the money to teach them how to help in the right way. He told us a story of a man from the US who visited Africa and want to help, so he brought materials from the US and was helping the locals to create houses. They didn’t always do it the “right way” so he built all of them himself and gave them to the people. Then he saw that the corn crops were only growing about 4 feet talk so he brought in seeds and fertilizer from the US and gave them to the people so their crops would grow bigger and stronger. Then he notice that the locals were dependant on the “witch doctors” so he built a hospital and staffed it so that people could get western medicine and not have to depend on the witch doctors.(Now I thought what is wrong with the witch doctors, but Bill told us that some of the ways the help people isn’t really the best ever. Like if a baby has diarhea instead of giving the baby more fluids or electrolytes they would put it in the sun to dry because the baby had too much water in their system. So in this case I am thinking...there is a reason the mortality rate for babies is high and people only live til around 50 or 60 here.)

To finish up with this story, the man eventually died and all of the funding dies with him. He was supporting all of this with contributions from people and when he died none of the people were interested in contributing anymore. The man had been helping them for about 50 years so when he died the people could take care of themselves anymore because they had forgotten how. The houses that were given them were great, but when it was time to build new houses they had to learn all over because they forgot how to build any kind of house. They had no access to the seeds and fertilizers from the US anymore so they experienced a famine because they didn’t know how to grow any food with their local resources. The funding for the hospital ran out and so the people turned to the witch doctors again. So basically what he and his group does it to teach the people how to use the resources that are all around them so they can be self sufficient and have sustainable lives. They teach them everything from water purification using sand and charcoal. To building cob houses and growing crops. Bill also talked to us about his views as an ‘Independent Christian’ which is a non-denominational denomination that believes in Jesus and God, but aren’t big fans of the political structure or dogmas of Christianity. Bill was a pretty cool guy and we hope to keep in touch with him.

We had so many good talks with Bill that the trip flew by. Before we knew it we were at the Nairobi airport. We said our goodbyes to Bill and were off to the Kenya air ticket office. Unfortunately we got there on a Friday and we weren’t going to be able to speak to anyone until Monday or Tuesday and we had to go to the ticket office which was in town. While David was inside the office getting all of the information I sat outside with our luggage. A man started talking and flirting with me, which is not very typical for me these days so he had me giggling and I come to find out he is a cabbie wanting to take us into town. (All these cabbies have their angle, I’ll tell you what...) When David got out I told him that this guy could take us and he said he would charge us about $60. When the guy went to get his cab we asked a guard how much a trip should be and he told us 1500 shillings, so when the cabbie got back he agreed to take us into town and back for 1500 each way. We packed up the car and were off to town. Tons of traffic... Along the way the cab driver started complimenting David and David told him he was a smooth talker. All in all he was a pretty nice guy, he brought us to the places we needed to go in town and in the end we couldn’t do anything until the weekend was over so we asked him to bring us to a hotel that didn’t cost too much. He ends up bringing us to this place that is all run down and kind of scary looking. When the woman brings in a tv for us the cord explodes in a big flash of fire. We are super motivated to find a new place and we find that right across the street we find one that is perfect for just a little bit more money, but much nicer. That night it was hard to sleep. It is Friday night and everyone is on the street. Busses are beeping...Let me explain about the busses. There are busses everywhere and each of the people who own these busses are constantly yelling and beeping. So this isn’t an every once in a while thing, it sounds like a marching band all day and all night long during the weekend and sometimes during the weekdays, but not as bad. There seems to be as many people here as when we went to New York. The people just keep coming and coming from all directions. And this night around 4am there was some sort of church thing happening...I am not really sure what was going on because it was in Swahili, but every once in a while they would say Jesus and Hallelujah soI am pretty sure that was what was happening. They got louder and louder until finally everyone was screaming. It ended around 5:30 am or so and we were able to sleep more, but we were defiantly moving hotels the next day.